AnswerTips
- Add/embed an online dictionary/glossary of terms in any website or wiki
- Fantastic tool for classroom application
- Its embedded into this wiki so test it out by selecting/double clicking any word
Bubbl.us
- Similar to creately but simpler with less bells and whistles
- Also allows saving, exporting and publishing online
- More akin to Inspiration
ClusterMaps - Track visitors to your blog or website by geography
Cover It Live - Live Blogging - Similar to other trackback tools - I don't personally like it very much because of the ads - But it allows you to embed your trackback onto any wiki or blogsite
Creately
- MS Visio killer
- Is intuitive and easy to use
- Allows comments, saving, exporting and publishing online
- Created by a friend of mine but now no longer free
Del.icio.us
- Social bookmarking
- Students and Teachers can use this facility to bookmark sites they visit and store them online
- Bookmarks can then be shared among different people - this is useful in a learning community as well as in PW among students
- As opposed to getting students to purchase newspapers to cut out and comment on articles, this can be done online with students bookmarking articles and commenting on them. The teacher can then be added to view and keep track of students progress. As an added bonus, students can be asked to comment on the articles collected by their classmates. Monitoring is much easier than if work is done in hardcopy.
- For teachers, bookmarks can be archived as a tool for lesson development and design
Diigo
- Has overtaken Del.icio.us as the premier social bookmarking and annotation site especially for education
- Check out some material that I have put together for this
- I highly recommend this for classrooms and teacher team preparation meetings
Doodle
- Create an online poll
- This is similar to google forms but for different kinds of surveys
- You can create polls that allow respondents (who do not need an account) to indicate their availability
- Useful for scheduling meetings of all sorts (social or professional, online or face-to-face)
Dropbox
- Allows you to store files in the ‘cloud’ and sync them across multiple computers and devices automatically
- Free version allows 2gb of storage
- There is also a version for the iPhone and iPad that is free as well
Flexbook
- Find and create content using this interesting tool
- Have explored this but am not sure how useful the resources available are. Please do check.
Flickr
- Photosharing
- In project work this will be useful as a means to get students to share photos that they have taken to create a repository of photos that all groups can use
- At a learning journey (overseas or local) for the same purpose as stated above
- The photos collated can then be used for lessons and become part of a teaching resource
FlickrSlidr
- Create & Embed Flickr Slideshows
- This tool allows you to easily embed the classic flickr slideshows on your website or blog
- All you need to do is enter the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group you would like to embed along with some options
- You'll receive the HTML embed code in return
FotoFlexer
- Amazing online Photo Editor
- Easy to use
- Has basic/beginner as well as advanced features
- No userid or password, one click login
- Interface with multiple Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa
- Allows you to change the size and resolution of photos
Get a Google account - a Google account is similar to a Gmail account just without the email. You can also register for a Google account by using an outside email address
Global Education Ning - a network on Ning of educators around the world sharing resources and participating in discussions
Glogster
- Make online animated posters - very nice for creative writing and it's free
- This is awesome
- Along the lines of Prezi but slightly different in approach
- Think of a podcast and a blog: This is a meshup of the two
- On one glog you can have a mix of text, video, pictures and audio files
- Great as a portfolio
- Check out material I have put together on this application
- Wikispaces has recently added a glogster widget that allows you to embed your glogster posters directly into your wiki without any hassle (check it out)
Goo.gl
- URL shortener created by google.
- Free, Simple and easy to use
iEtherpad - exactly the same as Etherpad that previously shut down its servers - Real time collaboration online - Allows you to save and export what you type - Works great - At present, does not support collaboration on the iPad. I hope someone is working on this!
ImageShack- free media hosting site - Allows you to upload pictures and videos in a variety of different formats (including flash) - You can then link to or embed your media into your blog, wiki or website
Interactive Games
- Brought to you by National Geographic Kids!
- Many very cool games that students can play. Educational in nature
Lino - Online Web Stickies - With a free account you can have up to 50mb of sticky storage space (which is sufficient) - Allows you to embed your canvas on a blog or wiki and be notified when someone adds a new sticky - Great for class or student discussions / an alternative to having a discussion forum - You can also create groups and share stickies with friends (i.e. in project work and group research)
Mind Meister
- More complex than Bubbl.us
- Allows embedding onto websites or wikis
- More suitable for upper secondary or college level students
Ning - build your own public or private social network (not free anymore!)
Photofunia - Fun for kids - turn yourself into the Mona Lisa!
Photo Peach
- Slideshows and Quizes using Photos
- Incredibly easy to use application that allows you to make slideshows and even quizzes based on photos that you upload
Penzu
- Secure online journal-ling tool
- Its free
- Similar to a REAL diary (looks like a sheet of paper)
- Easy to use (no sign in, not as cumbersome as a blog where you need to add post)
- Search feature (allows easy search for specific items within your journal)
- Secure (all entries are private by default)
- Linked to Flickr (allows you to add your Flickr photos)
- Allows sharing (users can share selective entries with others in a variety of ways including by email)
- Access anywhere (like any other Web 2.0 tool, is not limited to any platform or computer terminal)
- Has a pro feature where you can add more customization for a price
PictoBrowser
- Create photo galleries for your website, blog or wiki
- Made to interface with Flickr or Picasa
Pixton- AMAZING Online Comic Creator - Free version is called "Comic for Fun" - Great online tool that allows you alot of flexibility in creating an online comic strip - Seeing is believing!! Go try it
Posterous - free blogging tool (an alternative to the more common blog sites) - Clean and simple interface - Allows you to email your blog posts - Interface with Facebook and Twitter - Professional Looking themes - Now also comes with a free iPhone App that allows you to update your blog on the go!
Prezi - Visual Story Telling
- This takes powerpoint to a whole new level
- Completely free and online
- Platform neutral
- Ability to create terrific presentations that embed sound, video and other media as well as your text (or traditional slides)
- Seeing is believing so go test it out
- Get your kids to create PREZI slides (no more POWERPOINT)
- Check out a sample prezi
Prezi Meeting - Allows up to 10 simultaneous collaborators on a single Prezi - Extremely useful for classroom application with students and educators
ReelClever - Free Online Storyboarding Tool - Sign up for the free film maker account - Allows you to create one "film" for free which can have multiple scenes (more than sufficient)
Scribd
- Similar to slideshare but its focus is on Word documents and PDF files
- Good way for teachers to put up worksheets or handouts for students to download
- No limit to the number of Word documents or PDF files that can be uploaded
- Can also be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
- Log into Scribd and look for documents created by me (pavitersingh)
Slideshare
- Allows users to search for and download slides that others have put online (extremely useful for lessons / resource for educators)
- Allow teachers to collaborate with each other and upload slides of lessons
- Allows students working on projects to share slides with each other
- Has a comment function such that views can comment on the slides that others have shared (collaboration)
- Creators can set permissions to only allow certain users to view their slides or allow the public to download material they have uploaded
- Can be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
Springnote(similar to Penzu) - free online "wiki-like" journal-ling tool - I feel Springnote is better than Penzu because of its wiki like interface and structure - Very easy to set up
TagCrowd - similar to Wordle
- Paste a bunch of text
- The online tool creates tags of the words depending on the number of times each word appears in the text
Tagxedo - similar to Wordle
- But different!
- In Tagxedo you can create a tag crowd in the shape of an image (rose, bear, etc)
- You can upload you own image or use one of many in the gallery
- Not like Wordle in the sense that you cannot paste "a bunch of text" but direct the tool to search a keyword, or url/blog
Teacher Tube
- Education focused U-Tube
- Many great videos can be found here. To download any video on u-tube, you might want to google for a software that are available online
TimeGlider - Free Online Timeline Creator - Amazing interface - Still in Beta but works great
Tiny URL
- Shorten any url that you want to email or share with someone
- Great resource to shorten lengthy URLs
TodaysMeet
- Back Chanelling Tool
- Back chanelling is a way to keep up with a presentation when it is going on by fielding questions or comments onto a space online
- It is collaborative allowing all members of the physical and virtual audience to participate (passive - watch or active - contribute) to the channel
- The information can then be retained and used for multiple purposes - Great for students with disabilities such as those who may have some hearing loss - Allows them to read the text (similar to close captioning) that another student or teacher notes down while the lesson/lecture is in progress (in real time)
TrackStar
- Starting point for online lessons and activities
- Collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track
- Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators
- Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity
- Check out this Social Studies Track created by a fellow ADE and Educator, Vivien Sim: Track # 78442
Twitter
- On the surface this seems like a purely social application
- However it is being used by many education institutions including universities to make announcements and keep in touch with both staff and students
- An excellent platform for short announcements and instructions
- Can be something for teachers to use to communicate with students, for students to ask questions of each other or of teachers
(if they are unsure of a concept that has been taught in class)
- Can be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
Weebly
- Drag and Drop Website Creator
- Free
- Allows you to create a website using drag and drop functions
- Able to embed web 2.0 widgets into the website
- Able to edit CSS or HTML if you prefer
- More customization than a wiki or blog
Voicethread
- Slideshows with text, audio, and video commenting
- I favor voicethread as THE way to create podcasts on the web
- It is also a great way to create lessons and instructional materials that are univerally designed and cater to a wide range of learners
- Check out two of my sites where I have used Voicethread extensively
a) http://snapshotsinhumanities.wikispaces.com
b) http://freeagentlearning.wikispaces.com
Wondersay - Create wondersayings (thats what the website calls them) for free - These are simple text animations that you can embed onto any website, wiki or blog
Wiffiti - Publish real time messages to a screen - Application allows you to set up your own 'screen' - Publish using text messaging or twitter - Great classroom application - check this out
Wikispaces
- Yes, this wiki is created using wikispaces
- Click here to create a wiki for K-12 education that cuts out the adverts and gives you added security for FREE
- I prefer wikispaces over PBwiki because of the functionality
Wix
- Create a professional looking website in minutes
- Especially useful if you want to showcase photos (uses flash)
- Has a free area and premium (paid) section
Wordle - create word bubbles
- Excellent tool for teachers and students
- Put down main ideas/key ideas related to any topic or subject
- Advanced woodle features -> if you want to set the font size and colour manually
- Check out material that I have put together on this application
Yolink
- Allows you to search within a search
- Excellent for research and projects
- Integration with GoogleDocs allows you to save your results right away
- Watch a YouTube Video on Yolink
How are Web 2.0 applications being used in classrooms?
Educators are using these applications to promote collaboration in their classrooms and beyond.
Check out the Classroom 2.0 ning for examples of how educators are incorporating new and emerging technologies in their work.
Where can I find additional Web 2.0 applications?
Try this directory of all things Web 2.0.
All tools now organized in ALPHABETICAL order :)
New items (as of 28 April) are listed in RED!!AnswerTips
- Add/embed an online dictionary/glossary of terms in any website or wiki
- Fantastic tool for classroom application
- Its embedded into this wiki so test it out by selecting/double clicking any word
Bubbl.us
- Similar to creately but simpler with less bells and whistles
- Also allows saving, exporting and publishing online
- More akin to Inspiration
ClusterMaps - Track visitors to your blog or website by geography
Cover It Live - Live Blogging
- Similar to other trackback tools
- I don't personally like it very much because of the ads
- But it allows you to embed your trackback onto any wiki or blogsite
Creately
- MS Visio killer
- Is intuitive and easy to use
- Allows comments, saving, exporting and publishing online
- Created by a friend of mine but now no longer free
Del.icio.us
- Social bookmarking
- Students and Teachers can use this facility to bookmark sites they visit and store them online
- Bookmarks can then be shared among different people - this is useful in a learning community as well as in PW among students
- As opposed to getting students to purchase newspapers to cut out and comment on articles, this can be done online with students bookmarking articles and commenting on them. The teacher can then be added to view and keep track of students progress. As an added bonus, students can be asked to comment on the articles collected by their classmates. Monitoring is much easier than if work is done in hardcopy.
- For teachers, bookmarks can be archived as a tool for lesson development and design
Diigo
- Has overtaken Del.icio.us as the premier social bookmarking and annotation site especially for education
- Check out some material that I have put together for this
- I highly recommend this for classrooms and teacher team preparation meetings
Doodle
- Create an online poll
- This is similar to google forms but for different kinds of surveys
- You can create polls that allow respondents (who do not need an account) to indicate their availability
- Useful for scheduling meetings of all sorts (social or professional, online or face-to-face)
Dropbox
- Allows you to store files in the ‘cloud’ and sync them across multiple computers and devices automatically
- Free version allows 2gb of storage
- There is also a version for the iPhone and iPad that is free as well
Flexbook
- Find and create content using this interesting tool
- Have explored this but am not sure how useful the resources available are. Please do check.
Flickr
- Photosharing
- In project work this will be useful as a means to get students to share photos that they have taken to create a repository of photos that all groups can use
- At a learning journey (overseas or local) for the same purpose as stated above
- The photos collated can then be used for lessons and become part of a teaching resource
FlickrSlidr
- Create & Embed Flickr Slideshows
- This tool allows you to easily embed the classic flickr slideshows on your website or blog
- All you need to do is enter the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group you would like to embed along with some options
- You'll receive the HTML embed code in return
FotoFlexer
- Amazing online Photo Editor
- Easy to use
- Has basic/beginner as well as advanced features
- No userid or password, one click login
- Interface with multiple Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa
- Allows you to change the size and resolution of photos
Get a Google account - a Google account is similar to a Gmail account just without the email. You can also register for a Google account by using an outside email address
Global Education Ning - a network on Ning of educators around the world sharing resources and participating in discussions
Glogster
- Make online animated posters - very nice for creative writing and it's free
- This is awesome
- Along the lines of Prezi but slightly different in approach
- Think of a podcast and a blog: This is a meshup of the two
- On one glog you can have a mix of text, video, pictures and audio files
- Great as a portfolio
- Check out material I have put together on this application
- Wikispaces has recently added a glogster widget that allows you to embed your glogster posters directly into your wiki without any hassle (check it out)
Goo.gl
- URL shortener created by google.
- Free, Simple and easy to use
iEtherpad - exactly the same as Etherpad that previously shut down its servers
- Real time collaboration online
- Allows you to save and export what you type
- Works great
- At present, does not support collaboration on the iPad. I hope someone is working on this!
ImageShack - free media hosting site
- Allows you to upload pictures and videos in a variety of different formats (including flash)
- You can then link to or embed your media into your blog, wiki or website
Interactive Games
- Brought to you by National Geographic Kids!
- Many very cool games that students can play. Educational in nature
Lino - Online Web Stickies
- With a free account you can have up to 50mb of sticky storage space (which is sufficient)
- Allows you to embed your canvas on a blog or wiki and be notified when someone adds a new sticky
- Great for class or student discussions / an alternative to having a discussion forum
- You can also create groups and share stickies with friends (i.e. in project work and group research)
Mind Meister
- More complex than Bubbl.us
- Allows embedding onto websites or wikis
- More suitable for upper secondary or college level students
Ning - build your own public or private social network (not free anymore!)
Photofunia - Fun for kids - turn yourself into the Mona Lisa!
Photo Peach
- Slideshows and Quizes using Photos
- Incredibly easy to use application that allows you to make slideshows and even quizzes based on photos that you upload
Penzu
- Secure online journal-ling tool
- Its free
- Similar to a REAL diary (looks like a sheet of paper)
- Easy to use (no sign in, not as cumbersome as a blog where you need to add post)
- Search feature (allows easy search for specific items within your journal)
- Secure (all entries are private by default)
- Linked to Flickr (allows you to add your Flickr photos)
- Allows sharing (users can share selective entries with others in a variety of ways including by email)
- Access anywhere (like any other Web 2.0 tool, is not limited to any platform or computer terminal)
- Has a pro feature where you can add more customization for a price
Picnik - Free online photo editing
PictoBrowser
- Create photo galleries for your website, blog or wiki
- Made to interface with Flickr or Picasa
Pixton - AMAZING Online Comic Creator
- Free version is called "Comic for Fun"
- Great online tool that allows you alot of flexibility in creating an online comic strip
- Seeing is believing!! Go try it
Posterous - free blogging tool (an alternative to the more common blog sites)
- Clean and simple interface
- Allows you to email your blog posts
- Interface with Facebook and Twitter
- Professional Looking themes
- Now also comes with a free iPhone App that allows you to update your blog on the go!
Prezi - Visual Story Telling
- This takes powerpoint to a whole new level
- Completely free and online
- Platform neutral
- Ability to create terrific presentations that embed sound, video and other media as well as your text (or traditional slides)
- Seeing is believing so go test it out
- Get your kids to create PREZI slides (no more POWERPOINT)
- Check out a sample prezi
Prezi Meeting
- Allows up to 10 simultaneous collaborators on a single Prezi
- Extremely useful for classroom application with students and educators
ReelClever - Free Online Storyboarding Tool
- Sign up for the free film maker account
- Allows you to create one "film" for free which can have multiple scenes (more than sufficient)
Scribd
- Similar to slideshare but its focus is on Word documents and PDF files
- Good way for teachers to put up worksheets or handouts for students to download
- No limit to the number of Word documents or PDF files that can be uploaded
- Can also be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
- Log into Scribd and look for documents created by me (pavitersingh)
Slideshare
- Allows users to search for and download slides that others have put online (extremely useful for lessons / resource for educators)
- Allow teachers to collaborate with each other and upload slides of lessons
- Allows students working on projects to share slides with each other
- Has a comment function such that views can comment on the slides that others have shared (collaboration)
- Creators can set permissions to only allow certain users to view their slides or allow the public to download material they have uploaded
- Can be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
Slideroll - free online slideshow creator
Springnote (similar to Penzu) - free online "wiki-like" journal-ling tool
- I feel Springnote is better than Penzu because of its wiki like interface and structure
- Very easy to set up
TagCrowd - similar to Wordle
- Paste a bunch of text
- The online tool creates tags of the words depending on the number of times each word appears in the text
Tagxedo - similar to Wordle
- But different!
- In Tagxedo you can create a tag crowd in the shape of an image (rose, bear, etc)
- You can upload you own image or use one of many in the gallery
- Not like Wordle in the sense that you cannot paste "a bunch of text" but direct the tool to search a keyword, or url/blog
Teacher Tube
- Education focused U-Tube
- Many great videos can be found here. To download any video on u-tube, you might want to google for a software that are available online
TimeGlider
- Free Online Timeline Creator
- Amazing interface
- Still in Beta but works great
Tiny URL
- Shorten any url that you want to email or share with someone
- Great resource to shorten lengthy URLs
TodaysMeet
- Back Chanelling Tool
- Back chanelling is a way to keep up with a presentation when it is going on by fielding questions or comments onto a space online
- It is collaborative allowing all members of the physical and virtual audience to participate (passive - watch or active - contribute) to the channel
- The information can then be retained and used for multiple purposes
- Great for students with disabilities such as those who may have some hearing loss
- Allows them to read the text (similar to close captioning) that another student or teacher notes down while the lesson/lecture is in progress (in real time)
TrackStar
- Starting point for online lessons and activities
- Collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track
- Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators
- Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity
- Check out this Social Studies Track created by a fellow ADE and Educator, Vivien Sim: Track # 78442
Twitter
- On the surface this seems like a purely social application
- However it is being used by many education institutions including universities to make announcements and keep in touch with both staff and students
- An excellent platform for short announcements and instructions
- Can be something for teachers to use to communicate with students, for students to ask questions of each other or of teachers
(if they are unsure of a concept that has been taught in class)
- Can be embedded into any wiki, blog or website
Weebly
- Drag and Drop Website Creator
- Free
- Allows you to create a website using drag and drop functions
- Able to embed web 2.0 widgets into the website
- Able to edit CSS or HTML if you prefer
- More customization than a wiki or blog
Voicethread
- Slideshows with text, audio, and video commenting
- I favor voicethread as THE way to create podcasts on the web
- It is also a great way to create lessons and instructional materials that are univerally designed and cater to a wide range of learners
- Check out two of my sites where I have used Voicethread extensively
a) http://snapshotsinhumanities.wikispaces.com
b) http://freeagentlearning.wikispaces.com
Wondersay
- Create wondersayings (thats what the website calls them) for free
- These are simple text animations that you can embed onto any website, wiki or blog
Wiffiti
- Publish real time messages to a screen
- Application allows you to set up your own 'screen'
- Publish using text messaging or twitter
- Great classroom application - check this out
Wikispaces
- Yes, this wiki is created using wikispaces
- Click here to create a wiki for K-12 education that cuts out the adverts and gives you added security for FREE
- I prefer wikispaces over PBwiki because of the functionality
Wix
- Create a professional looking website in minutes
- Especially useful if you want to showcase photos (uses flash)
- Has a free area and premium (paid) section
Wordle - create word bubbles
- Excellent tool for teachers and students
- Put down main ideas/key ideas related to any topic or subject
- Advanced woodle features -> if you want to set the font size and colour manually
- Check out material that I have put together on this application
Yolink
- Allows you to search within a search
- Excellent for research and projects
- Integration with GoogleDocs allows you to save your results right away
- Watch a YouTube Video on Yolink
How are Web 2.0 applications being used in classrooms?
Educators are using these applications to promote collaboration in their classrooms and beyond.
Check out the Classroom 2.0 ning for examples of how educators are incorporating new and emerging technologies in their work.
Where can I find additional Web 2.0 applications?
Try this directory of all things Web 2.0.